6 • THURSDAY,
September 30, 2021
OPINION
www.merrittherald.com
GOVERNMENT
ALBAS: The question of mandatory vax
Normally during the third week of September, all MP’s would be heading back to Ottawa as the House of Commons DAN ALBAS would resume VIEW FROM the fall sitting. THE HILL This year, because of the election called by the Prime Minister, it will be delayed. Earlier this week Prime Minister Trudeau announced that he expects to announce his cabinet sometime in October. Potentially this could mean a return in November or even early December. Typically, the House only sits for the first few weeks of December which creates two challenges. The first is that this provides a limited opportunity for PM Trudeau to advance any legislation through the House before the end of the year. Secondly, it also provides little opportunity for all party Parliamentary Committees to properly scrutinize this Government and hold it accountable to Canadians. The Prime Minister also this week announced his priorities with his new government. The immediate priority will be establishing mandatory vaccination policies for all federal government employees and similar restrictions for Canadians travelling within Canada on “planes and trains” as PM Trudeau often states. What is interesting about these priorities is that they did not require an election. In fact, it could be argued that these measures could have already been implemented had the Prime Minister focussed on these priorities instead of calling an election. One question already arising is will federal employees who refuse to be vaccinated be terminated from employment? Once more information is available, I will share it in a future report.
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